Glass and Water

Just about every week at joY Yoga someone asks for one of my meditations.

They're always so sorry too, don't want to bother me or get in the way, but they would just really love a copy.

I always say they same thing, that I would love to send them a copy and that it is not a bother at all.

Because I would. And it isn't.

What would be a bother is if nobody cared.

If nobody else struggled with the same things I struggle with, THAT would be a bother.

So below are the two meditations from this morning's class.

Glass was read at the beginning, and Water at the end.

And until right this moment, I didn't realize the connection between glass and water.

GLASS

Do you ever notice the simple irony in how the more you open yourself up to love, opportunity, connection, creativity......the more likely it is that you will be hurt?

Being open to all of the beauty and compassion the world is asking for, also sets you up for so much disappointment, regret, betrayal. Your openness to all that is just and forgiving and tolerant and moral is, in some ways, like an open wound. If you're not careful with it, something can get in and sting.

And this could break your heart.

It could.

But know this: It is better that way.

It is better to live with cracks in your heart if you must, but to have it be open. Closing it diminishes you, lessens what you have to offer and what you are able to receive.

Staying safe and unharmed is not a life lived in service and gratitude and compassion.

It is not a life lived at all.

So be cautious. Be aware. But open up.

Gently test beliefs and consider others and think again and look for where you're needed and know that getting hurt means you are alive, but not as the fragile untouched goods behind the glass.

You are the glass itself.

WATER

There is a quote that says this:

If my strength intimidates you, that is a weakness of yours.

Can we agree on this? Can we say that you have a right, maybe even a duty, to bring your power to this world, that life is far too short for you to stay small just because it makes others more comfortable, makes you more comfortable too maybe?

Can we say that you need to honor your strength?

And that if it is grounded in love and good intentions and is meant to bring justice and peace and hope and joY, then it is not something to be diminished. It is to be upheld, used in service of yourself and those who do not yet have a strength of their own. You must wield it like the magnificent tool that it is, and build us all up.

Just remember this though: Remember to stay soft.

Remember that water is soft. It is soft, but it is the lifeblood of the whole planet too.

The whole planet.

It is soft, but it can penetrate rock.

It is soft, but it can move entire cities.

You can be water.